Journal lubricator

ABSTRACT

A lubricating device for maintaining a flow of lubricating oil between a journal brass and an axle in a railroad freight car truck. The lubricator includes an eccentric mounted on the axle end and driving a piston type pump to provide a continuous recirculating flow of oil. The journal brass is ported and grooved to provide a flow path for oil along substantially the entire length of the bearing surface.

O Umted States Patent [151 3,704,049

Guerrini 5] Nov. 28, 1972 JOURNAL LUBRICATOR FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1721 lnvemofl 9 Guerfini, R 2, Green- 28,191 6/1912 Great Britain ..1s4/27 R 16125 601,325 5/1948 Great Britain ..1s4/27 R [22] Filed: March 26, 1971 Primary Examiner-Manuel A. Antonakas 21 A 1. N 12 8 1 pp 0 Attomey----Peter L. Klempay 52 us. (:1. ..308/84, 184/27 R [57] ABSTRACT [51] Int. Cl. ..B61f 17/24 [58] Field of Search ..184/27 R, 26, 6.28; 308/79, A lubri ating evice for maintaining a flow of lubricat- 308/7 9,}, 84 7 ing oil between a journal brass and an axle in a railroad freight car truck. The lubricator includes an ec- References Cited centric mounted on the axle end and driving a piston UNITED STATES PATENTS type pump to provide a continuous recirculating flow of 011. The ournal brass 1s ported and grooved to pro- 2,6l0,095 9/1952 Browning ..308/84 vide a flow path f oil along Substantially the entire 1,2 l length of the urface 1,832,451 11/1931 Elliot ..308/84 X 1,677,001 7/1928 Moreau ..308/84 2 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTED NOV 2 8 I972 7a Bo 74 F l G. 5

INVENTOR.

CAMILLO G U ERR I N 1 AGENT JOURNAL LUBRICATOR In conventional railroad freight car trucks the axles are provided with cylindrical portions extending outwardly from the wheels and the truck side frames are provided with journal brasses which support the side frame on these cylindrical projections of the axles, the brass engaging approximately'the upper one quarter of the axle. All of the weight transfer between the car and the axle is through the area of contact between the journal brasses and the axle extensions. Since the freight car truck must be capable of providing trouble free service over extensive periods of time and since, in

a modern freight train where high speed operation is common, the journals are subjected to severe operating conditions, an adequate supply of lubricant must be maintained in the area of contact between the journal brass and the axle extensions. In conventional freight car truck constructions this lubrication is provided by maintaining a reservoir of lubricating oil in the lower portion of the journal housing and by providing means whereby a lubricating oil is picked up by the lower surface of the axle projection and carried by the axle to the area of contact between the journal brass and the axle. This arrangement, however, is not totally satisfactory and may not provideadequate lubrication, especially under conditions of prolonged high speed operation. Failure of lubricationv greatly accelerates equipment deterioration requiring frequent maintainance and replacement both of axles and of the journal brasses. The failure of lubrication may also result in a hot box" disabling the freight car with the resultant delay. The condition may also result in a failure of the axle or the bearing assembly producing a derailment thus severely damaging equipment, lading, and surrounding property.

While various arrangements have been proposed and have, to a limited extent, been adopted to avoid these difficulties, there is no available economical and efficient lubricating arrangement which assures adequate lubrication of the axle and journal brass under all conditions of operation.

Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide a lubricator for a railroad freight car journal.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a railroad freight car journal lubricator which is of simple design, thereby providing trouble free operation over a prolonged period of time and under varying operating conditions. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a railroad freight car lubricator which is of inexpensive construction, making the device suitable for use on the vast majority of railroad freight car equipment.

Still another object of the invention is the provision of a railroad freight car lubricator which may be readily adapted to existing equipment without requiring extensive modification thereof.

The above and other objects of the invention which will become apparent in the following detailed description are achieved by providing a lubricator which consists, essentially, of a piston type pump mounted in the lower portion of the journal housing so as to be in direct communication with the oil contained therein, an eccentric arrangement affixed to the end of the axle stub for driving the pump, and a journal brass which is provided on its bearing surface with a U-shaped channel for receiving lubricating oil from the pump and distributing this oil in a uniform pattern across the entire contact area between the journal brass and the axle stub.

For a more complete understanding of the invention and the objects and advantages thereof reference should be had to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawing wherein there is shown a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view, partially in section, of a railroad freight car journal assembly equipped with the lubricator of the present invention;

FIGS. 2-4 are transverse sectional views taken along the lines 11-11 to 1V-IV, respectively, of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a bottom plan view of the journal brass employed in the assembly of FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings and, particularly, to FIG. 1 the reference numeral 10 designates generally a railroad freight car bearing assembly. This assembly 10 forms a part of the side frame of the freight car truck and, with the exception of the lubricator of the present invention is of conventional construction.

The bearing assembly 10 is comprised of the end portion 12 of the axle, a journal housing 14, and a bearing brass 16 received within the housing and engaging the axle 12. The housing 14 is carried in the truck side frames, not shown, which in turn are joined by a bolster and serve to support the freight car. The portion 18 of the axle 12 which engages the bearing block 16 is cylindrical and concentric with the wheel, also not shown. At either end of the cylindrical portion 18 of the axle 12 there are provided enlarged portions 20 and 22 to prevent axial movement between the axle and the bearing block 16. The bottom surface 24 of the bearing block 16 is of a cylindrical contour to engage the cylindrical surface 18 of the axle 12. The housing 14 extends below the axle 12 to provide a reservoir 25 containing lubricating oil 26. The'housing 14 is also provided with an opening 28 and a cover plate 30 for this opening. As is well understood by those skilled in the art, seals are provided between the axle l2 and the housing 14 and between the cover plate 30 and the housing so that dirt, water, or other contaminates do not enter the housing 14.

In order to provide for the efi'ective lubrication of the cylindrical portion 18 of the axle 12 and the cylindrical surface 24 of the bearing block 16 there is provided a lubricating device designated generally by the reference numeral 32. This lubricator 32 includes a housing 34 having an upper portion 36 and a lower portion 38. A mounting disc 40 is adapted to be secured to the end of the axle 12, for example by means of the bolts 42. Preferably, a retainer plate 41 which has lugs 41a is provided. The lugs 41a are designed to be bent over the head portions of the bolts 42 when the bolts have been tightened so that the bolts are held securely and do not vibrate loose. This mounting disc 40 is concentric with the axle and carries a stub shaft 44 which projects axially from the mounting disc 40 into the upper portion 36 of the housing 34. The stub shaft 44 is also concentric with the axle 12. At the end of the stub shaft 34 within the upper portion 36 of the housing there is provided a second disc 46 which carries a pin 48 located in an off center position. A cam plate 50 is received within the upper portion 36 of the housing 14 and has a slot 52 which receives the pin 38. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the sides of the plate 50 are guided by the side walls of the housing portion 36 and, thus, the arrangement of the disc 36, pin 48, and slotted plate 50 serve to translate the rotary motion of the disc 36 into reciprocating motion of the plate 50. Projecting from the upper end of the plate 50 is a rod 51 which is slideably received in a bore 49 in the upper wall of the housing 36. This rod serves to guide the plate 50 and prevent sideways movement thereof. Affixed to the plate 50 and projecting downwardly therefrom is a rod 54. This rod extends downwardly into the lower portion 38 of the housing 34 where it is provided with a piston 56 received in a bore 58 of the housing. Inlet and outlet ports 60, 62, respectively, communicate with the bore 58 and the lower portion 24 of the bearing assembly housing 14. Suitable check valves 64 and 66 are provided in the respective ports so that a pumping action is achieved when the piston 56 moves upwardly and downwardly.

An inlet conduit 63 is connected to the inlet port 60 and extends to the lowest point of the reservoir 26.

Connected to the outlet port 62 of the lower housing 38 is a conduit 68 which extends upwardly to a fitting 70 of the end of the journal brass 16. As can be seen from FIG. 5, the journal brass is provided on its lower surface 24 with a U-shaped groove 72 which extends substantially the entire length of the surface 24. A plurality of short lateral grooves 73 may also be provided to assure complete lubrication of the journal bearing surface 24 and axle 18. These grooves 73 preferably extend in an angled relation from the U-shaped groove 72 and terminate short of the opposite side of the groove 72 or the edge of the journal 16. Also, sufficient ungrooved areas are maintained on the bearing surface 24 to provide adequate contact and load bearing area between the journal bearing surface 24 and the axle 18. The fitting 70 is connected by a passage 74 to one end of the U-shaped groove 72. The opposite end of the groove is connected by a passage 76 to a fitting 78 which, in turn, is connected to a return line 80 leading downwardly to the lower portion 24 of the bearing assembly housing 14.

It will be seen that the lubricator assembly housing 32 is secured in position by the stub shaft 44 which, in turn, is carried by the mounting plate 40 affixed to the axle end. Obviously, suitable bearing means may be provided for receiving the stub shaft 44 in the upper portion 36 of the lubricator housing 32. Likewise, the eccentric pin 48 may also be provided with an idler wheel and suitable bearings.

In order to prevent rotation of the entire lubricator housing 32 the housing may be designed to be of sufficient width to engage opposite side walls of the bearing assembly housing 14 or, alternatively, the housing 32 may be provided with lugs 82 which project on opposite sides of the housing to engage the side walls of the bearing assembly housing 14.

The operation of the lubricator is readily apparent. Whenever the freight car is moving rotation of the axle is transmitted to the stub shaft 44 to the disc 46 and,

through the pin 48 and slotted plate 50 is translated into reciprocating motion of the rod 54. The piston 56 is thus reciprocated whenever there IS movement of the freight car to pump oil upwardly through the conduit 68 to the groove 72 of the journal brass. The groove 72 serves to provide an oil path along substantially the entire length of the area of contact between the axle portion 18 and the lower surface 24 of the journal brass. In high speed operation, the reciprocating action is, of course, more rapid than at low speed operation and, as a result, increased flow of lubricant across the bearing is maintained. This serves both to assure efficient lubrication even under high speed conditions and further to provide cooling for the axle and the journal brass. It will be understood that the direction of rotation of the axle does not affect the operation of the lubricator so that equal lubricating action is achieved regardless of the movement direction.

While only the best known embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described in detail herein it will be clearly understood that the invention is not so limited thereto or thereby. Reference should thus be had to the appended claims in determining the true scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. Lubricating apparatus for a railroad freight car journal having an axle including a cylindrical bearing portion, a journal brass engaging the bearing surface, and a housing supported on the journal brass and including a lower portion containing a quantity of lubricating oil, comprising:

a first disc secured to and concentric with the end of the axle;

a shaft affixed to the disc and extending coaxially therefrom;

a second disc secured to and concentric with the end of the shaft;

a pin projecting from the face of the second disc opposite the shaft, the pin being offset from the center of the second disc;

a plate having a slot engaging the pin, the plate being guided so that the plate reciprocates vertically upon rotation of the axle and discs;

a second housing surrounding the second disc, incorporating the guide means for the plate, and extending to the lower portion of the first-mentioned housing;

pump means within the lower portion of the second housing and including a piston connected to the plate to reciprocate therewith to effect the'pumping of oil contained in the lower portion of the housing; and

conduit means connecting the outlet of the pump means to the journal brass, the journal brass having a groove on its bearing surface for receiving oil from the pump means and distributing the oil across the bearing surface.

2. Lubricating apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the second housing includes projecting portions engaging the side walls of the first housing to prevent rotation of the second housing relative to the first housing. 

1. Lubricating apparatus for a railroad freight car journal having an axle including a cylindrical bearing portion, a journal brass engaging the bearing surface, and a housing supported on the journal brass and including a lower portion containing a quantity of lubricating oil, comprising: a first disc secured to and concentric with the end of the axle; a shaft affixed to the disc and extending coaxially therefrom; a second disc secured to and concentric with the end of the shaft; a pin projecting from the face of the second disc opposite the shaft, the pin being offset from the center of the second disc; a plate having a slot engaging the pin, the plate being guided so that the plate reciprocates vertically upon rotation of the axle and discs; a second housing surrounding the second disc, incorporating the guide means for the plate, and extending to the lower portion of the first-mentioned housing; pump means within the lower portion of the second housing and including a piston connected to the plate to reciprocate therewith to effect the pumping of oil contained in the lower portion of the housing; and conduit means connecting the outlet of the pump means to the journal brass, the journal brass having a groove on its bearing surface for receiving oil from the pump means and distributing the oil across the bearing surface.
 2. Lubricating apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the second housing includes projecting portions engaging the side walls of the first housing to prevent rotation of the second housing relative to the first housing. 